East Meon | |
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All Saints Church |
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East Meon shown within Hampshire | |
Population | 1,171 1,257 (2011 Census including Bolrdean) |
OS grid reference | SU680221 |
Civil parish |
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District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | PETERSFIELD |
Postcode district | GU32 |
Dialling code | 01730 |
Police | Hampshire |
Fire | Hampshire |
Ambulance | South Central |
EU Parliament | South East England |
UK Parliament | |
East Meon is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 4.4 miles (7.1 km) west of Petersfield.
The nearest railway station is 4 miles (6.4 km) east of the village, at Petersfield.
The village is located in the Meon Valley approximately 31 km (19 mi) north of Portsmouth and 98 km (61 mi) southwest of London, on the headwaters of the River Meon. With an acreage of 11,370 acres (46.0 km2), East Meon is geographically the largest parish in East Hampshire. The boundaries of the present Parish of East Meon date back to 1894.
About a mile to the west rises the prominent hill of Henwood Down (201 m). The South Downs Way passes over the southern spur of the hill.
There are bronze age burial barrows within the parish of East Meon which date back to around 2000 BC. There is also an iron age fort, situated just outside the parish boundaries on Old Winchester Hill, constructed approximately 500 years before the Romans invaded Britain. There is also evidence of Roman occupation in and around the village.
East Meon itself may have started life somewhere between 400 and 600 AD. Then it was part of a Royal Manor belonging first to King Alfred the Great who left it in his will to his youngest son Aethelweard (c.880-922). The Domesday Survey of 1086 shows that the Manor then belonged to William the Conqueror; it records six mills and land for 64 ploughs. About 1280 a family from East Meon, who took the name de Meones, moved to Dublin, where they became substantial landowners and gave their name to the suburb of Rathmines.